Emma

14

Verano

How would you have me, hmm?
Dip-drop, long shot, what-not.
Sweet or spicy. Lemon and lime.
Poolside barbecue? Bonfire on the beach?
We've got much work to do. Vacation,
vanilla ice cream, velvety skies,
dripping eyes. You want a piece of me?
Nylon, polyester, sweat and seawater.
When it's warm, it's hot, it's humid–
June July August–
that's when you're mine.
That's when I own your veins.
So how would you like me?
Long day, hard play, wash away. Drown
in me, in my light. I'll tear you apart.
Queen of Broken Hearts.
You make me laugh,
you know: you think too much
or not enough, you hold too tight
or not at all. You make me laugh.
So I make you high on life. You get drunk
on, well, me. Glass bottles filled
with sweet soda, ice dripping
down the crystal edges, all the open panels
of your hands, your eyes, your laughter lines.
Screw you. Wasting, spending, killing time.
Believing in the ocean spangled
with starlight, that one love
can last forever, that the waves won't move in
and take it all out to sea. Up up and away.
But that's my nature. I'm flashy.
I'm Time drenched in golden light,
layers and layers of candy-yellow, neon
outline, orange and cherry blossom perfume.
I make you want me. And
I use you up. I drain you dry.
Hollow heads and fireflies. I give you
the world
and I take it away again so
quickly. So so quickly.
I'm the rush. The highlight. The climax.
Bare feet, no sleep, last week. But
I come with the drop, too, you know.
Just my nature, the smell of chlorine,
volleyball and picnics, grass stains on new shorts.
I drop you. I let you fall. Don't care. Nothing personal.
That's just what happens when
I end. I leave you crumbled,
worn-out, scorched and dazed,
missing me.